Assembly President calls for action to bring marginalized into mainstream

10 February 2009  The President of the General Assembly today stressed the need to recognize the rights of the marginalized and boost their inclusion in local and global financial structures, during the launch at United Nations Headquarters in New York of the first-ever World Day of Social Justice.

In order to bring the poor, people with disabilities, older people, disaffected youth and other minorities into the mainstream, Miguel D’Escoto called for “policymaking that recognizes their human rights as full members of society” and “a financial system that includes those who are being excluded.”

He also spotlighted the “dominant economic system” which has favoured the wealthy while developing nations’ access to fair trade has been rejected.

“Poor, developing countries have been ordered by the Bretton Woods institutions to cut back on the social and economic programmes that ensure a decent standard of living for their citizens, perpetuating the murderous deprivation of their poorest people,” the President said.

The Assembly proclaimed 20 February as the World Day of Social Justice in November 2007, and this year marks the first time that it will be observed.

In the unanimously-adopted resolution designating the World Day, the 192-member body recognized “the need to consolidate further the efforts of the international community in poverty eradication and in promoting full employment and decent work, gender equality and access to social well-being and justice for all.”